An interconnect, such as a bus or point-to-point link, is used to transfer electrical signals between electronic components, such as integrated circuits (“ICs”), printed circuit boards or electronic devices. A bus denotes a plurality of signal lines, each signal line typically having two or more connection points for “transceiving” (i.e. transmitting or receiving). Each connection point electrically connects or couples to a transceiver circuit (i.e. transmitter-receiver) or one of a single transmitter or receiver circuit. A “point-to-point link” denotes one or a plurality of signal lines, each signal line typically having two transceiver connection points, each transceiver connection point coupled to a transmitter circuit, a receiver circuit or a transceiver circuit. For example, a point-to-point link may include a transmitter coupled at or near one end and a receiver coupled at or near the other end. Both a bus and point-to-point link include a “link” denoted as at least one signal line, each having at least two connection points. Each connection point is electrically coupled to a transmitter circuit, a receiver circuit or a transceiver circuit.
Depending upon the function or intended workload of an electronic component, a contact at an electronic component input/output (“I/O”) interface may be assigned a particular electrical signal direction. An electronic component interface, in particular the number and type of contacts, limits the amount of electrical signals that can be transferred or I/O bandwidth. For example, an electronic component may have a large number of bidirectional contacts when the number of electrical signals transmitted or received by the electronic component varies greatly. A bidirectional contact is denoted as a contact, which in use, both transmits and receives an electrical signal. However, bidirectional contacts require time for “turnaround” or transitioning between transmitting and receiving electrical signals. In some electronic components such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (“DRAM”), required time for “turnaround” of bidirectional contacts also depend on delay of transitioning state machines of internal circuitry of the DRAM. This turnaround time consumes available time for transferring electrical signals and thus lowers interface electrical signal transfer efficiency or I/O bandwidth. In contrast, an electronic component may have a large number of unidirectional contacts when the number of electrical signals to be transmitted and received is generally known. A unidirectional contact is denoted as a contact, which is used in either transmitting or receiving an electrical signal. Unidirectional contacts do not require turnaround time and thus increase interface electrical signal transfer efficiency or I/O bandwidth, but unidirectional contacts also do not have the flexibility of being able to efficiently handle a large variation in the number of transmitted or received signals.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus and method for adaptively configuring an electronic component interface to include the appropriate number and type of contacts for transferring electrical signals.